Any anons here run their own small business? Preferably as a sole-trader/operator? I need some advice.I'm 2 years into starting (perhaps foolishly) a one-man business where I do very specialized audio recording work for high-end classical and jazz musicians. It sounds creative but it's mostly very technical and the creative aspect only comes into play in know how musicians like to be heard.I've learn many lessons - all of them the hard way. My ongoing expenses are small but I'm not happy with how little work I'm doing and how low-quality a lot of my clients are.I'm facing that issue all new business face which is "how do I get clients" knowing full well that traditional marketing just doesn't work. I cold call/email a lot of folks and none of them are interested or are just broke.I also need *better* clients. I fixed this partially by just raising prices and vetting clients who show signs of being entitled headaches.Any stories? Advice? The supply of people who do what I do is low, but it's hard to find people who need my services.> inb4 post to /biz - in no way do I expect them to actually talk real business
>>33956810Here's my advice:- So, you want to provide a niche service for high-end customers? How many of these people exist? How much would they pay for your services? Do some market research on customers and your competition. - Work with as many people as possible, regardless of your feelings toward their talent and attitude. You need to build up professional relationships and a solid portfolio. People talk when they get results, and the music world is full of talkers. Everyone gets your business card, you post fliers where musicians are (guitar stores, music colleges, coffee shops, etc). If there's a bigger company in your market/area doing what you're doing, see if you can work for them to learn how they thrive. You might be able to subcontract their lesser clients, and eventually take their business when you work with the right people.- Expand your niche to find better niches. If you're not finding clients and you're not working at full capacity, you're doing something wrong. Record different types of music.- Consider your location. Big cities like NYC, Boston, Nashville, L.A., San Francisco will have people with money who would use your services. You need to be where musicians are, where your customer base is.- Imagine yourself working 40 hours a week (excluding the hours of business tasks like bookkeeping) at full capacity. How much would you make? How many clients are you working with? Is this a long-term relationship or just one-off projects? Do you charge hourly or by project? What is your typical fee? The answers to these questions will help guide you to better strategies.- Many small businesses fail because their ideas are too small. You have to think bigger and better. >t. small business owner
>>33956877Thanks for the help anon. I'll answer some of your "Questions" just as an exercise; I know you're not asking me directly.> How many high-end customers exist and what would they pay?I'm in the music capital of my low-ish population country. The music world is small. There's probably about 10-20 large, full-time orchestra that have "screw you" money as I call it. There's probably a dozen or so smaller groups that aren't rich but can afford a pricey album recording here and there. How much would they pay? Hard to say, but a few album is worth a few grand to these people.> working 40 hoursI never expect this to be something I'd do full-time, it doesn't make sense since recording is a day of work at best and then editing spread out across the week. The projects are all one-offs but there's a lot of pre-production and figuring creative details out. Typical fees were initially <$800 per show but that hasn't gone well at all. Currently the math is such that I'd have to charge at least $1k for the work to be lucrative, assuming less than 15 gigs a year (which is realistic).I have to politely disagree with "work with everyone regardless of how they make you feel." We've had some truly awful clients and it's never been worth it. Music clients want cheap but there are additional non-financial costs that they need to pay, and usually only the rich ones can afford those non-financial costs. These include things like just being a competent musician, having access to good venues, and working well under the pressure of being recorded.
>>33956810You want to be attractive to "high quality" customers. But what would make such customers want YOU? You have to find ways to make them aware of you. One road is to supplement your independent work with some for-hire jobs with known producers or recording companies, so their customers see you at work. You also might try donating your services to charity events, again to make yourself known to the high quality potential customers
